CarComplaints.com Notes: The 1998 Honda Accord suffers from widespread transmission failure, peeling paint, & subframe rust. We recommend avoiding this model year like the plague.
The transmission begins slipping & eventually has to be replaced, typically soon after 100,000 miles & with a repair cost of over $2,000.
Peeling paint has also been a huge issue for these Accords. Most of the complaints are with darker paint colors -- especially green & blue.
Subframe rust near the front passenger side wheel has become a problem recently, due to the poorly positioned A/C drain hose directly above that area. Repair cost to the subframe is over $2,000.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
7 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
5 / 0
Average Mileage:
51,660 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
(1) my 1998 Honda Accord (V6 coupe) began jerking and failing to accelerate. After repeated occurrence of this, I took my car to the Honda dealership to identify the problem (2) it was determined that transmission, specifically, the torque converter failed and needed to be replaced. (3) the transmission was replaced with a refurbished transmission.
The contact owns a 1998 Honda Accord. While driving 15 mph, the contact heard a faint knocking sound and experienced difficulty switching from first to second gear. The mechanic diagnosed the cause of failure as the transmission. The contact can drive the vehicle, but with difficulty. The failure only occurs when the engine is cold. The failure has been ongoing ever since it was purchased on September 11, 2002. The current mileage is 152,000 and failure mileage was 128,000.
Last August got check engine light checked; car slippe D from 1st to 2nd gear and accelerate D badly. Dealership didn"T find the problem. I had them do a transmission flush anyway. Check engine light went away but came back on later. Around March 31, check engine light again, had me pay $600 something and still original problem not fixed or diagnosed April 7, 2007 went back spent close to $900, original problem still not solved a couple of days later, after almost getting in an accident twice because the car decides to not respond to acceleration and instead decelerate on the major highway. Fearful of my life and that this wasn?T a safe car I took it back in to Honda again and finally this time they diagnose the transmission problem and say I need a new one after I had almost gotten seriously injured and spent close to $1500 on repair that weren?T really the main issue. I am a college student, I had to borrow part of the money from family to meet up to that $1500 and now I don?T have $4000 which is the quote for the transmission. I"ve always heard good things from Honda about service and reliability. Researching my problem on the internet I come across countless issues with the same 1998 Honda transmissions. Seems like a defect in the design of these transmissions and Honda should take full responsibility in poor workmanship and recall these transmissions. I shouldn't have to pay close to $4000 for something that shouldn't happen in the first place seeing that it is a very common and widespread issue with this model year transmission. They should replace them free of charge because it is very unsafe to drive.
I bought my 1998 Honda at the san francisco Honda dealership in san francisco and did all of my maintenance work at their shop. It has 70,000 miles on it and has had no serious problems. On Sunday I was crossing the bay bridge from oakland into the city and the engine light went on and the engine revved like I was in a drag car race and lurched forward and lost power and then accelerated violently all the way across the bridge. I literally almost got rear ended a few times and I am lucky to be alive! I was able to get my car to the dealership and they told me they had to charge me a $140 non-refundable "diagnostic fee" to determine what was wrong but they suspected it was the transmission. I got a call the next day letting me know the transmission was slipping and that it would need to be replaced at a cost of $5,000 parts and labor and they would have to order the transmission and would probably take 2 weeks to even get it" the warranty I had purchased had, of course, expired and no matter how much I tried to get a reason for this happening they just said "it happens". so after spending $17,000+ on a car and maintaining it I now have a dangerous and expensive lemon. I paid my $140 blood money and got my car out of there and deciding what to do next"
- the contact stated that while driving the 1998 Honda Accord at 45 mph the engine light came on, and the contact pulled to the side of the road. The vehicle hesitated then surged forward. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer, who ran a diagnostic test on the vehicle and recommended a new transmission. The failure had occurred 45 times.
- Palm Harbor, FL, USA
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: the contact stated while accelerating, the vehicle jerked. While taking the vehicle in for an oil change the dealer determined the automatic transmission assembly needed to be replaced. The seat belt was slow to retract and the rear brakes were service. Updated 11/30/06.
During the last 6 months I began having problems with my ignition locking up and car would not start & occasionally the car would stop running while in motion for no reason. The dash lights would all flash and then lock-up & die. I checked online and discovered there had been two recalls on my 98 Honda Accord LX, ignition switch and interlock. I phoned my local dealer, Honda of ocala and they gave me an appt. For 10/20/06. They took a look at my car and then tried to sell me other services. I asked that they only fix the two recalls as scheduled. I waited for 1 1/2 hours and then was informed that the ignition switch was bad but I would have to pay $205 if I wanted it fixed because it had already been fixed. They couldn't tell me where or when this was. I refused to pay for a recall that was supposed to be done free of charge. After making me wait another 35 minutes my car was returned. I asked about the interlock recall, had it been fixed? he said no you'll have to call and make another appt. This appt. Was for both recalls. They had my car for over 2 hrs and did nothing. I went home and called Honda of America. I spoke with a rep that took my complaint. On 10/23 I was told by both reps that my only option was paying labor and getting it done at Honda of ocala. I did not want to return to this specific dealership due to them treating me so miserably at the first appt. I have no records that this recall was ever fixed. My parents were the previous owner's and they don't either. Regardless the part is obviously defective as this is not normal and should be covered in full, free of charge by this recall.
Driving East on toll road 408 in far right lane going aprox. 60 mph and transmission (B7xa) down shifting locking the front wheels. Lost control of the car and spun backwards across all left lanes of traffic and then back across all right lanes of traffic and almost hit a light pole. Transmission is slipping and will not shift correctly...transmission is faulty and Honda knows it but will do nothing about a recall to protect people/owners.
I am a owner of 1998 Honda Accord and have just started having problems with my transmission knocking, clicking when I change gears, and it jumps out of gear as I am going down a hill. I did some research and found out that thousands of people are having the same issue. When I took it to the dealer they even was aware of the situation with the faulty transmission that they have been putting in people cars, but act like it is not a big deal. You think you are buying quality when you buy a Honda, but that is not the case. I hope no one gets killed before they take action. If I have an accident while driving with my kids in the car and it locks up, I will be moving on up to the next step because I don't understand why they would not stand behind their faulty junk and not risk some being hurt or even killed.
Automatic transmission - it started out slipping and jerking really badly with a 2-3 second delay or more. I've had the transmission rebuilt and we are still having the same problem.
98' Honda Accord sedan- we purchased in November of 2004 and vehicle had 44,000 miles. After a few weeks of driving, transmission was beginning to slip between first and second gears. Took to dealership and they stated we needed a new transmission. I called american Honda and they agreed to put in a rebuilt transmission even though it was a few thousand miles out of warranty. We paid for the labor. Vehicle is now at 88,000 miles and needs another new transmission. Same problems as before. Contacted american Honda again and they refuse to help.
The automatic transmission in my car started with hesitation during cold starts as described by numerous other Honda 98 Accord. It would get out of park and into 1st gear just fine, but when getting out of 1st and into 2nd, the rpms would just shoot up and the transmission would catch the 2nd gear 2-5 seconds later. In those 2-5 seconds, there would be no power transferred to the front wheels. The car is so jerky that sometimes I spin out on my front tires. The problem had been looked at by Honda, but they wanted $5,000 for the repair; the entire value of the car. We took it to aamco and they did the repair for 2,200. We've been into their shop twice now in their 1 year warranty, but the hesitation has come back. The car has only 82,000 miles on it and I don't drive it hard at all. Something is definitely wrong with these units and something has to be done.
98 Honda Accord transmission failure. Car lunges, misses gears and needs a replacement. Car has less then 100000 miles and it needs a rebuild. Know of other people with exact same problem. Honda knows its a problem and will offer to help pay some of part cost but that's it. The transmission is a flop and Honda should pay for it all. I was lied to and deceived by Honda. Definitely fraudulent.
My 1998 Honda Accord 2.3L with only 117K miles developed transmission shifting issues that would either leave me without power by slipping or drop me from 4th gear suddenly into 2nd. The first time this happened I nearly resulted in a serious accident as I was traveling on a freeway at 65 mph. Honda says there is no recall of these transmissions and no extended warranty but the number of reported failures in 1997 versus 1998 models shows that there is clearly a serious potential of catastrophic failures introduced in 1998. Honda refused to fix this and I had to spend thousands of dollars to rebuild the transmission.
Automatic transmission failure in my Honda Accord ex-V6 coupe. It began to hesitate going from 2nd to 3rd gear while I was driving. It occurred immediately after the fuse to my radio blew. Was told by Honda needed new transmission $3-4K.
I have a 98 Honda Accord and around 87,000 miles my transmission went out. I took it to aamco to have it diagnosed they said had to rebuild. $2900. Al month later I had to take it back for more transmission problems there was a loud knocking noise in the gear box and they fixed it. I took it back twice since having tranny rebuilt now its a year later and the car began to slip and jerk and now there is a metal scraping noise coming from the gear box when in gear. This is the 4th time I will have to take it in for transmission problems.
My Honda Accord automatic transmission has been acting up, not shifting smoothly, jerking, etc. The dealer has diagnosed it as needing replacement. This will cost $4,500 this is a low mileage car I bought new and that has been meticulously maintained with all service intervals done by a qualified Honda dealer (huggins Honda, North richland hills, tx) after researching this, I have found numerous exact same problems and it is obvious that Honda has a serious manufacturing defect with their automatic transmissions. I have not had it repaired yet because I cannot afford it. I have a 20 mile commute to and from work every day and I am concerned that the transmission will fail completely while I am commuting.
(1) driving from Pennsylvania to ocean city, Maryland for vacation and the check light came on when we were almost there. We pulled over on side of road and checked fluids and car and everything appeared to be okay until we could make it to garage. Started driving again in 4th gear and transmission started to slip and car started to downshift and RPM's went up. (2) let car sit and then tried to drive again in 3rd and 4th gears but same problem kept occuring. Then we put it in 2nd gear and that worked fine. We drove in 2nd gear going slow in the middle of a place we did not know and barely made it to the beach where my car sat the whole time and we could not drive anywhere. We had to have the car towed from ocean city to harrisburg, pa (about a 4 hour drive) (3) after talking with a Honda certified technician and others we determined it was the tranmission going out. My car is still sitting and I am trying to figure out what I am going to do considering a new transmission costs 3 to 4 thousand dollars as I was told by Honda. This is great considering I have only had my car for 2 years and still have 3 years to pay on it and it only has 86,000 miles on it.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Chicago, IL, USA